War in Iraq was justified because Saddam Hussein COULD have
made weapons of mass destruction

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, February 8, 2004; Page A04

President Bush and Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the war in Iraq
was justified because Saddam Hussein could have made weapons of mass destruction.
The new rationale offered by the president and vice president, significantly
more modest than earlier statements about the deposed Iraqi president's capabilities,
comes after government experts have said it is unlikely banned weapons will
be found in Iraq and after Bush's naming Friday of a commission to examine faulty
prewar intelligence.

"Saddam Hussein was dangerous, and I'm not just going to leave him in
power and trust a madman," Bush said yesterday in an interview with NBC's
"Meet the Press" that will be broadcast today. "He's a dangerous
man. He had the ability to make weapons at the very minimum."

Cheney delivered a nearly identical message yesterday to a group of Republican
donors in suburban Chicago. "We know that Saddam Hussein had the intent
to arm his regime with weapons of mass destruction," he said. "And
Saddam Hussein had something else -- he had a record of using weapons of mass
destruction against his enemies and against his own people."

In the NBC interview, excerpts of which were released by the network, Bush
also said the CIA is "ably led" by its director, George J. Tenet,
and that Tenet's job is "not at all" in jeopardy. Tenet, in a speech
last week, defended the agency's Iraq intelligence. While he acknowledged flaws,
he said the CIA did not argue that Hussein was a certain or imminent threat.

Before the invasion of Iraq 11 months ago, Bush and Cheney both argued that
Iraq was an urgent threat to the United States, stating with certainty that
Iraq had chemical and biological arms and had rebuilt a nuclear weapons program.
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that
the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons
ever devised," Bush said in March 2003.

Bush said he would "visit" with the commission he named last week
to investigate the Iraq intelligence but suggested that he would not testify
before it. Asked about why the commission will not report until next March --
after the presidential election -- while a similar commission in Britain will
operate much more quickly, Bush said: "We didn't want it to be hurried.
This is a strategic look, kind of a big-picture look about the intelligence-gathering
capacities of the United States of America."

While saying that "it's important this investigation take its time,"
Bush added that "there is going to be ample time for the American people
to assess whether or not I made good calls" in ousting Hussein.

Bush addressed himself to relatives of the more than 500 U.S. soldiers killed
in Iraq. "For the parents of the soldiers who have fallen who are listening,
David Kay, the weapons inspector, came back and said, in many ways Iraq was
more dangerous than we thought," he said. "We are in a war against
these terrorists who could bring great harm to America, and I've asked these
young ones to sacrifice for that."

Bush's appearance on the Sunday talk show, the first of his presidency, comes
as new polls show declining public support for his leadership. A Newsweek poll
released yesterday found that 48 percent of Americans approve of his performance
in office, the lowest in three years. By 50 percent to 45 percent, respondents
said they did not want to see him reelected.

Another poll, by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election
Survey, found support for Bush at 64 percent after his State of the Union address
Jan. 20, but plunged to 54 percent between Jan. 26 and Jan. 31 -- the time when
Kay, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector, said weapons stocks were unlikely
to be found in Iraq. Bush's approval rating stands at 56 percent in this poll.

Though Bush has been careful about acknowledging fault in the prewar intelligence,
or his allegations against Hussein, he said in naming the commission Friday
that Kay "stated that some prewar intelligence assessments by America and
other nations about Iraq's weapons stockpiles have not been confirmed. We are
determined to figure out why."